What crocus?

[Leena]

I have sowed Crocus cvijicii 2020 from Pilous seeds from Galicica Mts., Makedonia
They are flowering now for the first time (kept in pot in the polytunnel), but maybe they are not that species but something else?
I thought C.cvijicii was white or pale yellow and these small crocuses are orange.
Can anyone identify them?

[Tomte]

Leena, this crocus was previously known as cvijicii but has been renamed recently. It is now gramensis.
Apart from confusion about naming, it’s a very beautiful crocus, especially the forms with purple tubes. Does one of yours have this trait?
Cheers,
Tom

[Leena]

Tomte thank you so much!
It looks like C.gramensis and it is beautiful little crocus, and all the more precious because it was grown from seeds.
There are four corms which flower this year, and others are still too small. I think I will plant the bigger corms outside in open ground after they go dormant,
and keep the small ones in a pot still.
The biggest one shows darker tube, in this picture.

[Tomte]

They‘ll probably do well in your garden. They don’t like too much heat or drought, that’s why mine did not flower this year, last spring the end of March/early April was far too hot and drove many of my geophytes into premature dormancy.

I suggest you cross-pollinate them, now‘s a good chance to get some more 

[Leena]

I suggest you cross-pollinate them, now‘s a good chance to get some more 

I will try to do it, hopefully today the second flower will open more, and there are two more coming up,
It is too cold still to any insects to fly so there is no chance of them doing the pollinating.

Thanks for the suggestion where it grows best. There is not much online about it, and I have Janis Ruksans book of Crocuses but it is the first edition and there is nothing yet about C.gramensis.
I think I will plant them in semishade where Crocus thirkeanus and Crocus olivieri do well, in a bed under an apple tree.